How you can participate in the VUHID system
Once the VUHID system is operational, RHIOs and HIEs will provide educational information to patients interested in obtaining an identifier to provide more accurate, secure access to their medical information to all care providers in the network.
These RHIOs and HIEs will work with their EMPI vendors to participate in the VUHID network. Linking EMPIs to the VUHID servers is very simple. Figure 5 shows the process used to obtain an open identifier. Note that a patient only needs to go through this registration process one time when they are first obtaining their VUHID identifier.
Figure 5: Obtaining an open VUHID identifier
To obtain an identifier patients will provide sufficient demographic information — name, address, birth date, telephone number, social security number, etc. — as is routinely required as part of the registration process. Note that this information is entered into the EMPI for future registrations, but that none of this information is ever sent to the VUHID. The VUHID system receives only the request for an identifier. When it receives the request the VUHID system creates a new unique identifier and sends it to the EMPI. The EMPI will perform the link between the new identifier and patient information. In this way, personal information always remains under the control of the local healthcare environment. There is no need to create any kind of national data base where information could be compromised or vulnerable to misuse.